İstanbul police have conducted several anti-drug operations in recent months. Ties between a drug trafficker who was detained by police in a massive anti-drug operation -- seizing three tons of amphetamine, enough to produce nearly 200 million Captagon pills -- and three high-ranking police officers, including Deputy National Police Chief Emin Arslan, were recently revealed. The police also raided a house in İstanbul's Pendik district on Tuesday, where the successors of leading drug barons in Turkey -- allegedly engaged in international drug trafficking -- were having a meeting. Following these successful operations, narcotics teams seized 500 kilograms of heroin hidden in a depot in İstanbul's Beyoğlu district on Wednesday. The heroin was planned to be smuggled to Europe. The police, who launched an operation into the gang nearly a year ago, completed its surveillance and acted before the heroin was placed in secret compartments in trucks to be driven to Europe. The police also detained four suspects in the operation.
In the meantime, more details have started to emerge regarding the recent operation into the successors of Turkey's previously captured and jailed drug barons. According to information gathered about the gangs' plans, they obtained drugs from Iran via M.M., who was also detained in the operation. M.M. also reportedly worked with jailed drug trafficker Hüseyin Baybaşin in the past. Suspects G.E. and C.O. took delivery of drugs from M.M. and Ö.G and N.G. took on the responsibility to transport the drugs to the Netherlands, making use of the connections of K.E., who used to help another jailed drug smuggler, Urfi Çetinkaya, in international drug trafficking in the past.
